Today's red post collection includes a heads up that the LEGENDARY SNOWBALL promotion is live and purchasing a legendary (1820 RP) skin will include a free mystery gift through January 7th, a look at the RIP LIST for 2015, a look back at the Fiora update from earlier this year, more discussion from Gypsylord and Meddler following their introductions, a fan artist feature on Lighane, and more!

When you buy or receive a Legendary or Ultimate skin this Snowdown, you’ll unlock a free Mystery skin! If that Mystery skin happens to be a Legendary or Ultimate, it unlocks another Mystery skin and can continue to snowball from there. As an added bonus, we’re doubling your chance to unlock a Legendary when you receive each Legendary Snowball Mystery skin."

Just wanted to hop in and clarify that although Snowdown has officially begun, the Legendary Snowball doesn't begin until December 23rd.

Legendary Snowball runs from December 23rd - January 7th. You can grab more info about the Snowdown and all the stuff that's going on here!

TL;DR: When you buy a Legendary skin this Snowdown, you’ll unlock a free Mystery skin! If that Mystery skin happens to be a Legendary, it unlocks another Mystery skin and can continue to snowball from there. Ultimate skins also count!

A couple things to note:

If your Mystery gift is a legendary or an ultimate, you'll continue to snowball and receive another Mystery Gift.

If you gift a Legendary Snowball, the person you're sending it to will also receive the Mystery Gift.

If you gift someone a Legendary Snowball and their Mystery Gift is a legendary (or ultimate), they'll receive another Mystery Gift. (TL;DR, you can snowball from gifting.)

There is no limit as to how many skins you can snowball with! Feelin' lucky?

Surprise Party Fiddlesticks and Primetime Draven, while priced as 975 RP, are legendary skins and are part of the Legendary Snowball. They're permenantly discounted as a thanks to players.

Legacy Legendary skins listed in the Snowstorm Sale are also part of the Legendary Snowdown.

There's a double legendary chance for the mystery skin you get from Legendary Snowball. Normal mystery gifting doesn't have this multiplier.

Legendary Snowballs bypass the normal 10 available skins rule. You only need to have one eligible skin. This only applies to the Mystery Skin attached to the legendary. Mystery gifting still has the 10 item restriction.

You'll know if Legendary Snowball is active when you see the check box on the purchase confirmation page in the store. If you see that, there will be a Mystery Skin with your purchase!

I think this covers all the odds and ends! If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask!

Be sure to check out our SNOWDOWN 2015 postfor more information on the skins, summoner icons, promotions, and more going on through January 7th!

IronStylus on Warwick Update

"He's currently in our concept queue. Very, very early ideation. Real preproduction will start when we have a designer to work with the artist who's currently working on concepts as well as someone for narrative to work with the pod.

He has at least 2 VGU's in various stages of production ahead of him, and slotting can always change. But the hope is sometime next year :)"

Gypsylord Introduction Continued

When asked about the next champion he is working on, Gypsylord teased:

"Quote:

Hm, is the next champion you are working on a void creature? May be like kog maws daddy? Or mabey a canceled/iceboxed champ?

i just want to know

My next champion is in fact one that has spent some time in the icebox (however I assure you it's not one you've ever heard about)"

As for ability ideas that didn't quite make it into the game, Gypsylord shared:

"Quote:

What's the most broken ability you've made that will never see live?

From insanity:

Ekko's old R used to save everyone's exact state (CD's, health, mana, position, etc.) and then throw them into the time stream. After 8 seconds they'd be returned back to that exact state AS LONG AS THEY DIDN'T DIE. Was basically a "oh $%$#% everyone use everything" button. Two Ashe arrows and Vi R's in a fight is pretty crazy

From power:

Ekko's current R used to bring him AND THE TARGETED ENEMY OR ALLY back 4 seconds in time. Ended up being a targeted Blitzcrank grab that pulled you twice as far when used on people running away from your team. Way too strong.

Vi's ult used to do an AoE stun on the slam down...
or she could choose to throw you in a targeted direction...
or she could choose to suppress you for longer and deal a ton of damage"

When asked about playstyles in design vs reality for his champions, he commented:

"Quote:

What was the most unexpected playstyle/build to one of your champions you saw people use after their release?

Vi was supposed to be a top-laner. She was way better in the jungle

Jinx was supposed to be a bot-laner. With 50% AS at level 1 she could go into any lane and just win it

Gnar was supposed to build "one or two" offense items. Right now he builds .5, if that, and then goes straight tank.

Ekko was supposed to be a squishy mid-lane assassin, turns out straight tank cinderhulk jungle is also pretty good when you pack that amount of CC.

I'm really good at this! "

As for what goes into creating a champion and the personal returns, he shared:

"Quote:

I've said it before, and I'll said it again. I love your work. The champions you make ALL feel really fun and unique. I think the release Ekko patch was one of the most fun in the game. Jinx's crit rocket is satisfying enough for me to still be playing her 500+ games later. Anyway, as glad as I am that you're making a 5th champion, I'm also surprised. A rioter once wrote on these boards (sorry, forgot who exactly) that designers will sometimes go through a burnout after their 2nd or 3rd champions. Why do you think that didn't happen to you? Or do you just not agree that happens?

It's very true that our champion team tends to burn designers. I'll say that I'm not immune to the exhaustion (you'll often see me at different phases of a release complaining about champs in general and how "this one is so much more frustrating to work on vs. the others because of X") I tend to recover pretty fast after a release though. It helps that concepting and ideation (making a cool new char from nothing) is one of my favorite parts of the process so every time I finish a character I get to start off on the next one solving my favorite problems. Also, for me, champions are super compelling because of the amount of impact they can have on an individual player. When I go to a convention and meet all the players who love playing Gnar or felt compelled to cosplay Jinx cause they like her character so much I find it super energizing. Reminds me of why I love my job so much and why new champions are worth the inevitable exhaustion I'm going to experience."

When asked about his thoughts of a "living weapon" champion design, Gypsylord shared:

"Quote:

Would a "living weapon" type of champ that could be wielded by allies say during an ult or after death as a passive be feasible?

Regardless of whether you guys could get a kit for a champ like that to a place you liked, would a champ concept that isn't easy to iterate upon artistically much more than its base skin put the kibosh on proceeding ahead? I'd hope you guys just assume your artists will come up with some brilliant solution down the road and go on anyway (seems like that occurred with Z.A.C with Pool Party after a long while where he was mostly looked at as a recolor type of candidate).

"Living Weapon" could be a very cool gameplay idea. Reminds me of a champion I fiddled around with for a while that could "possess" allied champions, allowing him to bind to their position, shield them, and throw out a bunch of skillshots and traps from their body. Still think it's a viable gameplay space we haven't explored yet.

In game artistic iteration isn't necessary at the start of the process, we can get what we need to validate gameplay using temp art. What is important is that all disciplines have confidence that they can execute on the proposed artistic concept. We had a swarm character going around a few years ago that got iceboxed because we didn't feel like we could do "swarm of little things" justice with our animation and particle systems at the time."

When asked about what the next year may hold for new champions, he commented:

"Quote:

As a support main, I have to say your champs are some of the few that make me enjoy going out of my cherished role even when I suck with them. Design me a support and I'd probably have a new main.

For my question; Meddler and others have stated that this year has been something of a Year of the Myth with all the champion releases; Bard, Kindred, Tahm Kench, and to an extent, Illaoi all have very heavy myth elements in them.

As the first designer to release a champion next year, and given your involvement in champion iteration in general, from where things currently stand with the champions in the pipeline, if you had to give 2016 a title what would it be? You don't have to justify it, and we know things change design wise, but as of now what if any running theme would you say there is.

I won't give next year a title, but I will say that we're trying to get some more "approachable" champs into the lineup. We tend to swing pretty hard in various directions when making champion lineups and that is something we're trying to smooth out. Ideally we get a good mix of things that scratch different player itches throughout the the year. Guys, girls, monsters, simple kits, complex kits, grim-dark, lighthearted, etc.

It's hard though to get it right. Heh, during my time at riot some of the trends we've seen pop up have been:

How do I hold all these mechanics (Gnar, Azir, Kalista, Rek'sai, Bard, Ekko - string of champions with a lot of weird new mechanics that aren't all that easy to pick up and play)

Year of the myth (Bard, Tahm, Kindred - string of "mythical" champions that you can't really imagine walking down a street in runeterra)

Now all these characters arguably are pretty great on their own, it's when we string them together that we start to worry. Not everyone likes playing Yasuo, so if all the champs you release in a year play like Yasuo you're letting down a lot of your player base who isn't into that. DIVERSITY!!! "

When asked for three of his favorite champions that he didn't design, Gypsylord shared:

"Quote:

Also, name 3 favorite champs that aren't yours and explain why do you like each. :>

Vayne - IMO one of the most elegant kit designs we have. So simple, straightforward, and satisfying and yet has tons of depth and mastery.

Thresh - This is the champ that made playing support fun for the majority of the player base. CertainlyT killed it with this guy. A great example of a design constructed to solve a very specific problem expressed by players ("we don't enjoy playing most of your supports.")

Bard - This guy is trolly, and he's niche, and he's weird, BUT THAT'S THE POINT. Bard, IMO is the one of the most thematically resonant champions we've ever released. As Wrekz put it, "How many PvP games let you play the neutral 3rd party?""

How many new champions are being designed/play tested right now? About how many of them will make it to the live servers?

What do you do when you get stuck on a champion kit?

How many champions can you work on at once?

How long does it take to make new champions?

How many different kits did Vi, Jinx, Gnar, and Ekko have before they got the ones we have today?

If a design gets scrapped/shelved, can just anybody take it over? (Like if Certainly T or RabidLlama scrapped something, could you swoop in and use what they scrapped?)

Selecting some of the faster to answer questions

Usually we have about 4-6 new chars at a time that exist in various stages (from concepting to production). Most of them make it live, although they may change drastically over time. Every once in a while a char will get cancelled or iceboxed when it's not working.

I'll go work on something else for a bit. My mind is always churning on problems in the background so sometimes it just takes time to get a breakthrough. I remember working on Jinx's passive and running into the office once at 3 am to implement something I thought of while lying in bed. Alternately will put together a brainstorm meeting with other designers. Helps to get fresh eyes on a problem. We all think about things in different ways.

Only one at a time when they're in production. The time burden on a designer for art hookups and bug fixing is pretty massive during the last months before release. Otherwise, I personally could work on multiple in concepting. A lot easier to fiddle around with crazy mechanics in game when you don't yet have a production pod relying on you.

Depends on the champ. Vi was pretty straightforward. She took 6 months. Gnar was a lot more complicated and transitioned designers midway through. He took over a year.

There were a number of different abilities but in terms of different "kits" I'll list them off:

Vi always had Vault Breaker. The rest of her kit went from "not everything is a punch" to "everything is a punch"

Jinx used to have a kit that was like Udyr, every button was a different weapon she swapped to to modify her basic attack. R was an ult that changed based on the equipped weapon.

-Gnar used to be "squishy fast melee guy" that turned into "strong mega damage beast" before I changed him to "squishy fast ranged teemo" that turns into "Big angry Alistar"

-Ekko had like a billion different kits, the only thing that stayed mostly constant on him was various iterations of his "go back in time spell"

Yeah, we do this all the time. Sometimes a designer makes a cool ability that just doesn't work out on their kit but another designer picks up in the future. Other times an entire thematic concept/character won't work out for what we're making at the time but still has legs and gets picked up again (my next champion is this)."

Meddler Introduction Continued

When asked if they have any plans to look at Jayce following the 5.22 patch, Meddler noted:

"Yeah, we think we'll need to do something for Jayce early next year. Itemization changes in 5.22 seem to have hit him pretty hard. Might look at Manamune and/or Muramana buffs, still figuring out which lever's best to use (is it a lack of power on kit or a lack of support from other systems)."

As for if we should expect any large changes for Veigar in the previously discussed "immobile mage update" they plan to hit in 2016, Meddler commented:

"It's unlikely we'd want to make major changes to Veigar. Might be a reasonable candidate for small tweaks, they'd probably be around the scope of the changes to marksmen like Twitch or Sivir in 5.22 if so though."

Meddler also commented on where how he things Zilean is currently fairing:

"Seems to be in roughly the right spot. Slightly suspicious he might be a bit on the strong side when paired with the right team, haven't seen any direct evidence of that yet though."

Champion Update and the Flawed Fencer

In July of 2015, Riot pushed both a gameplay and visual update for Fiora. Here's Rumtumtummers with an article looking at that update, including the reactions to player feedback on her initial visuals.

"One of our fundamental goals in creating League of Legends champions is ensuring each has a distinct, cohesive, and well-executed identity. In a game with an ever-expanding roster of champs, some are better examples of this than others -- especially when you consider some of the older characters inhabiting the Rift. Some champions don’t offer distinct enough gameplay, despite working well within their role. Some champions have fundamental things that feel right, but require a more cohesive package. Others need to be rebuilt from scratch (see: Poppy). Champion Update is the team tasked with sorting out which champions fit where, and figuring out how to update and upgrade as needed to help those champs reach their full potential.

This process isn’t without risks. If Champion Update is committed to the goal of blowing players away and defying their expectations, the occasional strike will always be a possible side effect of swinging for the fences.

Fiora Enters the Fray

When the ChampUp team looked at Fiora earlier this year, it spotted some major gameplay problems. With no dodgeable spells and immense damage output, a fed Fiora felt like an unfair opponent. If she caught someone, she killed them -- end of story. Her tower dives were legendary. But Fiora’s strength hinged heavily on her early-game performance; if she was behind, there wasn’t any real way to come back. Even worse, she lacked utility that could make up for her low damage output, leaving a struggling Fiora no option but to sacrifice herself to the fray in the hopes of at least contributing a bit of useful damage. Fiora was either an unstoppable monster or a liability to her team.

Additionally, ChampUp saw a mismatch in the promise of her character and her actual gameplay, as game designer Stash Chelluck explains. “She was promised to be the Grand Duelist,” says Chelluck, “but her pattern felt very straightforward. It required little thought and reactivity.” And so, ChampUp dove into Fiora’s kit and started making tweaks.

Instead of focusing on what could be dialed back or toned down, ChampUp looked for opportunities to more effectively tie her gameplay to her in-game persona. Says Seb Rhee, who lead the ChampUp team during the Fiora re-work, “that’s where Stash discovered the really interesting fencing gameplay -- the idea of dueling between two players. Not only would it solve some of her innate gameplay problems, it would make her more cohesive as a character.” The new duel mechanics would help Fiora live up to the image of a talented duelist who can dodge attacks and hit opponents where they’re weakest, along with providing some much-needed utility in the event that she fell behind.

Going big with Fiora’s mechanics posed significant risk. Players who loved her old ult, for example, likely wouldn’t be happy to see it removed. However, ChampUp often has to remove pieces of the original champion in the interest of making him or her better overall (Sion’s original VO, for example). The decisions aren’t easy, but the hope is always that players feel like they’re gaining more than they lose. In the case of Fiora, the team felt as though her new mechanics were a marked upgrade from her old kit, enough that the pain of losing some familiar play patterns would be mitigated.

With the mechanics in place, the team moved into refreshing Fiora’s visuals.

Art of the Duel

New and modified champion mechanics usually need art assets or updates. In the case of Fiora, the team saw a chance to pair gameplay-centric art additions (VFX, ability animations) with a refreshed vision for Fiora’s base appearance. ChampUp concept artist Michael Maurino brings up an increased understanding of League’s universe and factions as inspiration: “We saw an opportunity to dig into the work Foundations was doing with Demacia, to see if there were some aspects we could apply to Fiora from there. We know she’s from Demacia; she should look like it.”

Rhee adds, “The update felt like a second chance to execute on the sort of haughty, condescending character she was originally intended to be.”

The art team worked to align Fiora’s costume with that of Demacian nobles, using muted golds, clean white fabrics, and high-quality leathers. The team also used visual cues to emphasize Fiora’s character attributes. Says Maurino, “Fiora is a sharp character; her design is going to have a lot of aggressive points. Her armor comes to a point. Her tunic ends in a point. Anything we can do to drive home what the character represents on first read is a high priority.” From a design perspective, it’s important that players can glance at a character and tell exactly what that character is about.

The art adjustments weren’t limited to costuming. ChampUp also took a knife to Fiora’s features, both on the in-game model and in the new splash art set to accompany her launch. Maurino walks through the thought process of artists working on the update: “We stylized Fiora very intentionally. We decided to give her a much more chiseled face. We wanted to make her sharp—not just in design and costume, but in features. He hair was sharp and her face was much more rigid.” Each change was carefully considered in terms of what it conveyed about Fiora as a character and as an in-game weapon.

It was another big risk -- one that wouldn’t play out quite as well as the one the team had taken with her mechanics.

The Splash Heard Round the World

Initial reactions to Fiora’s updated art were negative, to say the least. Across the League of Legends community, Fiora fans expressed concerns about her new, more angular design. While players were largely in support of her gameplay changes, they rejected her art changes almost unanimously. The outcry was a stark contrast from what the ChampUp team had expected. It seemed as though the team and players had dramatically different visions for Fiora’s identity and how that identity should be represented.

Rhee explains that the team went into the reveal with high hopes: “From the team’s perspective, the art changes on Fiora were above and beyond what we needed to make the gameplay work. In the moment, it was like, ‘Wow, we can deliver this incredible cohesiveness on smaller-scope projects -- even if they’re not huge Sion-level re-works.’ We came out the other side of the process thinking, ‘This is incredible. We ended up with something so much more than we anticipated this project would ever become.’” Moving from that sense of excitement into immediate damage control, he explains, “felt like running faster than you ever thought you could, then being exhausted at the finish line and realizing you ran the wrong direction.”

The feedback highlighted a disconnect between ChampUp’s understanding of Fiora and the understanding players had developed through their interactions with her. In playing as Fiora, game after game, players gave her an identity of their own invention. Rhee frames it as a natural evolution: “Once a character goes live and players learn that character and use that character (sometimes in ways we don’t anticipate), that character becomes something different from what we built.” In other words, the character matures. Rhee explains that players rejected Fiora’s new art not because of its objective quality, but because “the update failed to honor who Fiora had become for players.” ChampUp focused on her haughtiness and better-than-thou attitude, but players more closely associated her with a young, beautiful swordswoman.

This type of feedback, though difficult to hear, is immensely resonant to teams like ChampUp. Players weren’t reacting from a negative space or from an aversion to change, but to something that betrayed their understanding of a character they cared about. Notes Rhee, “It’s not so much that players are loyal to a particular hairstyle, or to Fiora’s cheekbones. They’re loyal to what Fiora represents to them, to the parts of the character that resonate.” Again, players had been asked to give something up -- in this case what they gained didn’t feel like more than they lost.

Maurino continues the thought: “Players said, ‘This character would not represent herself this way.’ Not, ‘I don’t like, red, I like blue,’ for example, but, ‘Fiora as a character wouldn’t choose red, she would choose blue.’ When a player says, ‘Fiora’s hair streak, or the way her hair is positioned, does not fulfill what this character is to me,’ that’s completely valid. That’s what happens when a character’s design speaks directly to a player.”

ChampUp worked hard to accommodate player feedback by making changes to Fiora’s new art, softening her features and bringing her hair closer to the original design. But without the bandwidth for another complete overhaul, the team had to settle for a middle-ground. “In the end,” concedes Rhee, “our corrections were more of a compromise. We made a lot of players happier with the changes we made, but ultimately it felt like us and players may have started with different understandings of Fiora.” It’s a lesson the team won’t soon forget.

Updates to Come

For ChampUp, success isn’t measured by the quality standards set by artists or designers. Says Rhee, “Fiora’s update shouldn’t be judged by ‘What did we want to make, and did we make it?’ It’s measured by, ‘How do players feel about this? Do players love this change? We try to surprise and to do things players don’t expect, but that end goal is always present.” The objective quality of art assets or VFX are a lower priority than whether those elements reflect player passion for a given champion. A miss is a miss, regardless of its technical execution.

The Fiora update and the controversy surrounding its art brought plenty of self-examination for the ChampUp team. Champion Update isn’t here to change things for the sake of change, but to improve League of Legends by constantly improving upon the game’s roster of champs. If changes -- artistic, mechanical, or otherwise -- don’t feel like big gains to players, those changes are missing the mark. The Fiora update served as a lesson on both ends of what can happen when we work to improve the characters players know and love, and a reminder that these improvements aren’t without their potential pitfalls.

Making bold choices and trying to surprise players will never be completely safe. Rhee concludes: “In our effort to really reach, to raise the bar, we’re going to take chances. If we’re taking the level of risks we should be taking as artists, designers, and people who love League, we’re bound to miss the mark sometimes. What’s important is that when we miss, we figure out what went wrong and we move forward with those lessons in tow.”"

The RIP List of 2015

Next up we have Riot Jaws with a "RIP LIST" of League of Legends things that are no longer with us, either removed or updated from the game over the course of the year!

"League of Legends can often feel like a living creature that evolves right before our eyes. With each change comes new champions, new item combinations to try out, and new strategies to win the game. But change also means saying goodbye (or good riddance!).

Join us in remembrance of the parts of LoL that are no longer with us.

Legends Rising Season Finale: Worlds

"The 2015 World Championship has come to a close. Relive the journey of five of the world’s best League of Legends players as they fight to leave their mark on the world stage.

Legends Rising goes beyond the game and explores the inspirations, fears, and inner workings of some of the world's most revered professional League of Legends players. These are their stories told from the inside.

Fan Artist Feature - Lighane

"Hey Summoners! Next we’re speaking with Lighane, a traditional community artist from Germany whose passion for League has inspired a beautiful collection of colorful chibi designs and clay sculptures. These awesome pieces are created with pencils and markers, and she’s even made her own coloring book!

If you know someone that you'd like to recommend for a future Fan Artist Feature, please let us know here.

How did you get started creating League of Legends fan art?

“It was a cold, cold winter six years ago... well, okay, maybe not that cold, but it was six years ago when I first heard the sounds of League of Legends. Yes, heard! My boyfriend Skeld was playing this game with some of his pals and I just listened to the awesome soundtrack and the glorious announcer of Summoner’s Rift. I was thrilled to also give it a try – and got hooked! Shortly after, I started creating custom in-game models (a frost version of Janna and many more) and then stopped due to a time-consuming new job. Until roughly one and a half years ago when an artist called Dragons and Beasties caught my attention. Her lovely polymer clay dragons inspired me to also make some League related clay figurines and put them on some social media channels. Thus “Lighane's Artblog” was born! Soon after, however, I stopped sculpting and started doing what I've always done – drawing!”

What’s been your favorite piece to create, and why?

Right now I think I pick Aviator Ahri. I love drawing custom skins and I finally had a chance to make good use of my beloved Copic airbrush system. It was so much fun working on this piece! Also, what’s not to love about Ahri, right?

Do you have a dream project you’d like to work on?

Oh, there are several. I have some ideas for web-comics in my head featuring the backstory and/or additional stories for some of the League’s champions and more! Also, I would love to create tons of concepts for champion skins as this has become a real passion for me. Oh – and if there’s some time in between I would also love to create a game of my own. But well, who knows!

Who’s your inspiration? Do you have any favorite League content creators?

Sources of inspiration are traditional artists like Kellee Riley. I am also in love with (Riot)Zeronis’ concept art. And then there’s Michelle Hoefener, I am a huge fan of her Heartseeker Ashe splash art... and pretty much all other splash arts she’s created, haha! Of course there are tons of awesome and talented League content creators I like. For exampleMizoreAme, Kyomon, and Skeld, haha!

Is there anything else you’d like to share with the community?

I’d like to thank everyone for supporting me. Your kindness and your encouragement are the reason I keep drawing day after day! I have met so many lovely people and found great new friends – I know this is just the beginning of my journey. And I hope you all will be part of it! <3

Want to learn about drawing chibis? Check out some of Lighane's videos too!"